SAPPHIRE
You've heard about sapphire blue, but what about sapphire pink? Or grey? Although blue is considered the normal colour for sapphires, they can be found across a full range of spectral colours as well as brown, colourless, grey, green, yellow and black. Those other than blue in colour are considered fancy colour sapphires. Some natural sapphires can be found as completely transparent, or "white." White sapphires usually come out of the ground as light grey or brown and are then heated to make them clear. However, in very rare circumstances they will be found in a clear state.
Their value depends on their size, colour and transparency. With stones of very fine quality, these are, however, not the only main criteria, the origin of the gem also playing a major role. Neither is the colour itself necessarily a function of the geographical origin of a sapphire, which explains the great differences in price between the various qualities. The most valuable are genuine Kashmir stones. Burmese sapphires are valued almost as highly, and then come the sapphires from Ceylon. The possibility of the gemstone's having undergone some treatment or other is also a factor in determining the price, since gemstones which can be guaranteed untreated are becoming more and more sought-after in this age of gemstone cosmetics.
In recent years, several excellent new sapphire deposits have been discovered, so no danger of us running out just yet.